The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations will go on as scheduled, despite a number of hiccups, and the draw for the tournament is made on Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET. On short notice, the new host of the tournament -- Equatorial Guinea -- is hosting proceedings after Morocco pulled out over fears about the spread of the Ebola virus.
Africa Cup of Nations 2015 draw results: Ghana drawn in toughest group
Hosts Equatorial Guinea were given a fortunate group that gives them a chance to advance, while Ghana got an absolutely brutal group with some of the continent’s strongest teams.
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Issues with Ebola also held up some qualifying matches and required some teams to play their home qualifying matches outside of their own country, but the virus isn’t expected to affect the upcoming tournament. Equatorial Guinea has the stadiums and infrastructure in place to hold the tournament on short notice after co-hosting in 2012, with Gabon.
Some of Africa's biggest teams failed to qualify for the tournament. Nigeria and Egypt, two of the most successful teams in the history of this tournament, finished third in their qualifying groups and will not be participating. Regular ACN contenders and World Cup participants Ghana and Ivory Coast will be the big favorites again, while the likes of Burkina Faso, Tunisia and Algeria have made big strides forward in recent years.
Hosts Equatorial Guinea and Congo will play the opening game of the tournament on January 17. Here are the groups.
Group A
1. Equatorial Guinea
2. Burkina Faso
3. Gabon
4. Congo
Group B
1. Zambia
2. Tunisia
3. Cape Verde
4. DR-Congo
Group C
1. Ghana
2. Algeria
3. South Africa
4. Senegal
Group D
1. Ivory Coast
2. Mali
3. Cameroon
4. Guinea
The teams were drawn from these four pots.
Pot 1
Equatorial Guinea
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Zambia
Pot 2
Burkina Faso
Mali
Tunisia
Algeria
Pot 3
Cape Verde
South Africa
Cameroon
Gabon
Pot 4
Guinea
Senegal
DR-Congo
Congo
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